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9
The number of Births was 1044, being 317 in excess of the
registered Deaths. Since the enumeration of 1871, the total
difference in excess amounts to 1297, which gives an estimated
increase of that number to the population.
I have been somewhat more minute in these estimates and comparisons
than usual, because old objections to population, as adopted
by the Registrar-General, the Government, and Statisticians, as a
basis for calculations and inferences, in reference to health and
disease, have recently been reiterated by Medical Officers of Health,
influential and respected in their profession. It is self-evident
that no calculation of a cotemporary population can be more than
approximately correct; and this, and similar Local Boards, aided
by the returns of their Officers, are for all practical purposes
sufficiently qualified by their position to form a just estimate of
the influence of disturbing causes upon the diminution or increase
of the resident inhabitants at any given period.
I trust that a careful consideration of the facts thus adduced will
lead to the conviction that, on the whole, the state of the District
is as satisfactory as could have been anticipated, in view of the
limited resources of Local Boards, and the restricted powers conferred
upon them.
Upon a recent retrospection, I found that the number of cases
involving active operations, including the demolition, repairs and
cleansing of houses, disinfecting bedding, providing proper closet
accommodation, &c., amounted to about 7000, since the establishment
of this Board. This estimate is of course exclusive of a very
much larger number of other Sanitary works performed—such as
periodical inspections, attention to dust complaints, and all those
minor matters which demand unremitting attention. It must be
apparent to all who are able, from a connection with this Board,
to look back over so long a period as nineteen years, that many
important and beneficial changes have occurred. Dwellings unfit
for human habitation have been cleared away; streets formed and
improved; almshouses, and baths and wash-houses erected; disinfecting
stations established; churchyards improved and beautified;
a new system of sewers completed; the river at the northern
boundary considerably purified; hydrants, giving a continuous
supply of water, set up in places where formerly the supply was
irregular and intermittent; and commodious and healthy schoolrooms
erected.
Of course all these altered circumstances are not regarded as due
exclusively to the action of the Central and the Saint Saviour's
B